Originally Posted by
ilovetofly
I am sorry if this has been asked. I did some search but didn't yield results I am looking for.
It does seem like some variation of this gets asked quite frequently, but I can understand problems with search here...
I found a Q fare on EF and tried to book it based on the fare bucket and routing.
Q seats were found for all flights and when the itinerary was priced, the returning flights all changed to N fare.
Usually the stock answer for this type of question is what brp first said -- that just because you see "Q7" or whatever in the Flight Availability search doesn't mean that there is a published fare that books into Q on your routing.
However, from your statement above, it looks as if you may have actually found a Q
fare, as well as the inventory, but it still wouldn't book. In that case, you need to check the fare rules with respect to minimum stay, seasonality (i.e., valid dates), day-of-week (e.g., Sun-Thurs only) and advance purchase. There's a good chance that your itinerary may not meet all the conditions of the Q fare, so AA.com is bumping you up to an N fare. You didn't post your itinerary, so we can't help check it for you.
If it looks like you are meeting all the fare requirements, then I would definitely call AA. It's not like AA.com is always perfect, and an agent can look up the Q fare and tell you why it isn't booking it and/or s/he may be able to do it for you.